Excentric and controversial Stendhal
some day read about opportunistic youg man, who had been made to commit
murder because of his greediness and wrath. This influenced Stendhal to
write a story about it all. And he made it! The
novel from the 1827 is
nowadays a part of contemporary literture of high schools in many
countries.
If there was no article in newspapers about the murder, that commited
an unknown
young man, there would be no such a contrastive novel in
this world.
Author wanted to avoid touching the private lives, so he situated all
the plot into the fictious town called Verrieres. And when he needed to
situate somewhere the characters of bishop, jurymen or court, he
situated it in the town of Besancon, where he never was.
Each chapter starts with a quote. Usually a famous name of political or
literary scene can be found below each quote. It is said, that Stendhal
(née Henri Beyle) used to made up these quotes very ofthen and then he
just added the famous name below it.
What it was about or the PLOT:
Young Julien Sorel entwines with the lady of the house - Mrs. de Renal.
He works here as a teacher for her children. They have a romance with
each other. Elisa, a servant in the house, falls in love with Julien,
but being rejected, she tells to Mr. de Renal about the romance between
his wife and young Sorel. Mr. de Renal sends Julien to the honour guard
of the Napoleon army. Later Julien leaves Verriers and he goes to
Besancon where he wants to become a priest. He
likes it here because he
got among his peers, sons of ordinary poor peasants. He observes here
various intrigues and he doesn''t like it. That''s why only Abbe Pirrard
becomes his friend. Abbe Pirrard later leaves to Paris and he takes
Julien with him as a secretary.
Julien gets into the family of
marquise de la Mole, who has daughter Mathilda and son Norbert.
Mathilda is not very interesting person, ordinary and snobbish. However, Julien likes Norbert and spends much time with him.
At some ball Julien meets the Paris cream of society and he begins to utilize his charms as much as Mathilda.
Julien has no interest for Mathilda and that is what she likes on him
but he only gives her as much attention as the education forces him to.
Inspite of all these facts he lifts up the thrown glove and soon they become lovers.
Later Julien begins to hate Mathilda''s snobbism and her humuliation and
pride and he leaves to Strasbourg. He is very heartless and cold to her.
After the advice of the duke Korasov he sues to the lady de Fervaques.
This makes Mathilda very shiftless until she finds out that she will
have a baby with Julien.
Marquise de la Mole is shocked by this information, however he agrees
with the wedding. Julien gets title of the gooseherd''s lieutenant, name
de la Vernaye and also money because nobody wants him to put a shame on
the de la Mole family.
Marquise asks for
letter of reference from Juliens previous family from
Verrieres. And here comes a letter that is sprinkled with tears of Mrs.
de Renal. The letter is written by the hand of Mrs. de Renal. She was
forced to do it because of the new priest of Verrieres. This letter
caused that marquise refused to agree with the wedding.
Angry Julien bouys two guns and travels to Verrieres. He feathers Mrs.
de Renal. He did of despair and betrayal. He is taken to the prison,
where he is wating for the death penalty. He''s got enough of time to
revalue his young life there.
Young Mathilda begs him to take appeal. The same does Mrs. de Renal who survived whole tragedy and visits Julien in the prison.
Julien''s father comes to visit Julien. However, he doesn''t come to see
Julien but to aks him for money he had to pay for Julien''s education.
Julien refuses any kind of help and he accepts the death penalty. He
finds out that the only person he ever loved is Mrs. de Renal. It is
the same person because of who he is going to die now.
Mathilda hasulien that she will bring up their son.
Julien''s head that was cut off by gilotine takes Mathilda in her hands to cemetery.
Three days after Juliens death dies Mrs. de Renal in hands of her children because of sorrow.
The book is written in a very complicated way and it is very difficult
to read. You will not avoid long descriptions of nature and buildings.
The book is divided into two parts, both divided into chapters that
beginning with quotations.
The RED colour has here the meaning of Julien''s passionate life and
also of the coming bourgeoisie. The BLACK colour symbolizes here tha
fall of the opportunist Julien and it also symbolizes a church.
More reviews about the Red and Black